All posts tagged: Schiffer Publishing

C215 Gives You “The Stencil Graffiti Manual”

November 29, 2022 Artists

If you want to learn how to do it correctly, you would be wise to study from a master. When it comes to stencil art on the street, this is a brilliant place to begin.

C215 – The Stencil Graffiti Manual. Schiffer Publishing 2022

The Paris-based stencil artist C215 learned his skills in the street and in the studio beginning in the mid-2000s after being influenced by the burgeoning practice in the street art scene of Barcelona and recognizing the practitioners in his home in Paris. Within a few short years, he was watching the evolution of all his peers – and even curating their work into shows. You can see many styles and techniques by surveying the field, and you’ll decide whose work is a cut above.

“The book that you are holding in your hands is therefore, a manual, an inventory of techniques to be appropriated in order to get yourself started in the art, or to help you develop stenciling’s potential. Stencils have no limits and can be adapted to all styles,” says the author in his introduction.

The Stencil Graffiti Manual is a ‘how-to’ book that gives you room to experiment while clearly pointing you in the correct direction. He shows you the tools needed, describes the techniques often used, provides a primer on historical uses of stencils, reviews principles of style, reflection, pattern repetition, figurative work, abstraction, and how to manipulate your work using Photoshop and Illustrator. It would be fair to say that your skill level is probably addressed here, regardless of whether you are beginning or have been looking for a way to expand your practice.

In a friendly, straightforward tone, C215 also interviews and features some of his friends and peers known for excelling at the techniques of cutting and spraying. A small selection of the pre-eminent stencil artists is featured here whose work has been found in many international cities dating back to the 1970s, including artists like Add Fuel, Ben Eine, Evol, M-City, Miss.Tic, Jef Aerosol, Monkey Bird, Nick Walker, Snik, Sten & Lex, and Stinkfish – all of whom have appeared here on BSA over the years. Each has a different interpretation of the art-making form, and each has formulated a unique voice and perspective.

“Many artists agreed to take part in the interviews,” says C215. “Throughout these pages, they share with you their expertise and their passion for stenciling. This multi-voiced manual is not only the fruit of my experience, but also, and above all, of the meetings and links forged over time with other artists in this field.”

C215 – The Stencil Graffiti Manual. Schiffer Publishing 2022

Dont Fret “Life Thus Far” : Harrington and Rojo Contribute to New Book

December 9, 2019 Artists

DONT FRET GETS IT, AND HE GETS YOU.

BSA contributes introductory essay and photos to the first giant compendium to represent the Street Art career of the ingenious Chicago humorist DONT FRET.

Sociologists and anthropologists and art school fellows like to say that the artist is having a dialogue with the street, with his peers, and with society. In ways that are more fundamental and resounding than most, the Chicago Street Artist named Dont Fret is certainly offering an entreaty to you to engage with him and his characters in a thoughtful analytic dialogue. He is also hoping for a laugh.

After two and a half years of preparation, DONT FRET debuts his first full-length book on Schiffer Books in time for the holidays, and it was worth the wait.

Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo contributed photography to the new book, and BSA’s Editor in Chief had the honor of writing the introduction. We excerpt part of that essay hopefully to provide illustration to the DONT FRET experience:

“An American working-class street art satirist educated on Polish Broadway, Don’t Fret is a preeminent Chicago Street Art humorist, graffiti writer, documentarian and acute observer of everyday people and their distinct cultures now melting into one another. Thanks to a newly muscular gentrification even these are getting stamped out altogether by better-heeled settlers. This is where Nelson Algren, the “bard of the down-and-outer” documented the seamy and wild side of Chicago in the 1940s and 50s in books like “Neon Wilderness” and “The Man With the Golden Arm”. Like the author, Don’t Fret is incorporating the character of the street into his work. Unlike Algren, and more appropriate to this time, his work is also Meta – the actual characters on the street are represented here in his art on the street.

He doesn’t recreate the city, he captures it. When it comes to the neighborhoods of Wicker Park, Bucktown, and Ukrainian Village in Chicago, Don’t Fret is reviving his memories as a kid growing up there. His is a pronounced psychological and emotional attachment to these places, even if the weather is freezing six months a year and he thinks all of the local sports teams suck, including, yes, Da Bears.

‘My parents said I was always funny as a kid and always a bit of a troublemaker,’ he says of his inquisitive mind and sarcastic tongue even back in 3rd grade when his parents took him out of public school and put him into a charter school. ‘This was the mid-90s and charter schools were still a new thing in Chicago. The thing about this school was that the school’s chief benefactor was a Saudi oil company, and the majority of the school’s teachers were ex-military. So even though it wasn’t military school, it definitely felt that way,’ he says. ‘I was constantly in trouble and talking back to teachers,’ which is no surprise.

‘I think I once famously asked a history teacher who was obsessed with China if he was a communist – smart-aleck type stuff. It taught me really early on to always question the authority and your surroundings. I think I’ve found humor and satire as a way to deal with the dark times.’ Dark Times, a simple accurate description for this age, writ large with a roller by Don’t Fret on a canal facing building in Hackney Wick, London, and also the name of his art collective. Similar to his work at home, he studies the common usage and phrases of other cultures that he visits to coin clever word twists and to impart his own sense of irony.

He’ll concede that memories of the city in his youth are sometimes blurry and malleable in the face of time and a sea of gentrification that has transformed his neighborhood, but he doesn’t feel pressure to be absolutely factual, just accurate and true in his impression. Once clearly defined ethnic enclaves of Northern European, Polish and Ukrainian descent, the imposition of a class-dividing freeway and a flood of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in the 1960s and 70s created a swirling pool of marginalized communities who were trying to make a life at the time he arrived. “

This is Dont Frets’ city and romanticism would ruin it probably. Stiff looking normal people of various postures and problematic fashions plod up and down the grey sidewalks together and individually. Streetlife is shared in the unpredictable rhythm of daily occurrences; buses and cars with puffs of pollution coming out of their tailpipes, a stern traffic cop writing a ticket while standing by a car, a man on a red brick stoop tipping a bottle of beer into his plump cartoon lips. Our foibles and ridiculous qualities are highlighted along with the hilarity of our unremarkableness through various status signifiers and cultural details, each superseded by our oddities.

Work is never far from food and food is never far from beer and beer is never far from Da Bears and The Buff. Yes, the Chicago Buff; that brown paint that pops up and plagues Chicago graffiti writers and Street Artists and that is famous in other cities. You’ll always have an hour of stories about “the Buff” at any graffiti barbecue in Chicago.

‘Someone once said there are only two constants in life: death and taxes,’ he warms up. ‘They clearly also forgot about the buff. I don’t have the statistics on this, but if I was a gambling man I’d be willing to bet the city of Chicago spends more money on the buff then they do on public arts, so what does that say? There have been countless times I’ve put up a piece at 2 AM and come back to photograph it at 9 AM and its already been painted shit brown. It’s interesting that that’s the color they chose as well, right? Like who got that contract, to create surely thousands of gallons of shit colored paint to spray across the city?’ ”

Two excerpts from the essay, “You Are Here. Dont Fret.” by Steven P. Harrington

DONT FRET *“Life Thus Far”*, is published today December 9th by Schiffer

Dont Fret: “Life Thus Far” to Be Released

October 30, 2019 Art Book Review, Artists, Monograph

Nothing to lose your head about, but you’ll be thrilled to hear about the long-anticipated release of the new monograph by the ingenious troublemaker and largely incognito Chicago Street Artist DONT FRET.

Emerging on the streets for a decade or so with painted wit and misshapen characters wheatpasted where you least expect them, he’s the sharp observer and human humorist whose work is as brilliant as your cousin Marlene, as funny as Johnny at the funeral home, as handsome as the guys behind the counter at Publican Quality Meats.

Well, maybe not that handsome.

“This is place-based Street Art, a running commentary on life in this neighborhood that captures the off-the-wall imperfect nature of humans in a pock-marked and still proud American city after capital leaves it, slowly imploding, coasting on fumes, hopefully rallying, quickly stratifying into luxury lofts and the rest of us,” writes Steven P. Harrington in the foreword to this hefty chunk of comedic meat. Peering through these pages, the feeling is inescapable; Somehow you sense like you know DONT FRET’S people – probably because many of them came directly from these streets.

An image by BSA’s Jaime Rojo in DONT FRET’s new book, “Life This Far”, published this December by Schiffer

We wanted you to have an opportunity to take a quick look inside the massive quirky tome yourself, because it is as eclectic and disarmingly insightful as this sidewalk bard and documentarian, and to let you know the book release is in December. Also, DONT FRET’s got a special gig going for its release with a limited edition screenprint and original sketch with signature in the book.

“I think you have to live life like you are invincible,” says the artist on the back cover of Life Thus Far, “but I also think you have to live life understanding that that sort of thinking is a result of a serious psychological disorder.”

We’ll talk to you more about this in a few weeks, and with the artist, and we’ll find out about his circuitous route to the streets of working class Chicago, how a fish rots from the head, the significance of the original Billy Goat on lower Wacker, and why Studs Terkel is more relevant today than ever.

DONT FRET “LIFE THUS FAR” Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA. 2019

BSA HOT LIST : Books For Your Gift List from 2016

December 10, 2016 Artists

Nothing can replace the experience of reading a printed and bound collection of images and texts – and the number of Street Art and graffiti related books that come out every year continues to grow in quantity and quality. We don’t receive all of them, and we don’t get the chance to thoroughly review them sometimes, but many of them do pass our desk and we take time to highlight ones that strike a chord throughout the year.

Here is a BSA Hot List selection from 2016 – a cross section really – that impressed us for one reason or another. Full disclosure: we were fundamental to the design and structure of the Icy & Sot book and wrote the Afterword and worked closely with the artists for months, and Ella & Pitr drew us into one of their illustrations, so there is a little more than usual bias in those choices. But otherwise, we’re confident that you’re well served by choosing from these titles for Christmas presents or Hanukkah gifts or Solstice offerings …

“Tracing Morocco”, Hendrik Beikirch

From BSA:

Dignity in “Tracing Morrocco” gives pause, requests your consideration.

Last year we wrote about Hendrik Beikirch’s journey to Morocco, The Trades. With the support of the Foundation Montresso he embarked on a project to paint the portraits of people whose trades might be in danger of becoming obsolete and/or disappearing due to the complexities of the modern world. Tracing Morocco, the book about the project is now out…

Hendrik Beikirch’s Tracing Morocco published by and in collaboration with Montresso Art Foundation. November 2016.

Click HERE for more about this book.

Alan KET Brings You “Urban Art Legends”

From BSA:

“This book is about the artists who have pioneered, promoted and transformed this ‘other’ art world,” says the author, himself a graffiti writer, artist, curator, activist, advisor and entrepreneur. What is fresh about his approach is the egalitarian respect that is given to artists regardless of their genre or associated scene, something we have always tried to balance as well amid a sometimes turbulent volley of antagonism that can sometimes distinguish graffiti/street art discourse.

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015

Click HERE for more about his book.

Ella & Pitr Draw You Their Diary of World Travels in “Baiser D’Encre”

From BSA:

Who knew that babies could use so many diapers! What to do when you are in a foreign city and both of you are sick as dogs? Also, we may need a crane to help us finish the world’s largest roof mural.

These considerations are things you draw into your travelogue diary when you are Ella & Pitr, the painters of enormous kings, pilots, and couples cuddled in bed on fields, rooftops, and beaches around the world.

Ella & Pitr. Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015.

Click HERE for more about this book.

MIKE MAKATRON : In 10 Cities and Multiple Worlds

From BSA:

Wanderer Mike Makatron has been spending his young manhood traveling the globe and painting walls and experimenting with styles of art ranging from fantasy illustration to loose and leafy botanicals, with symbols of indigenous spirits, psychedelic mushrooms and plenty of the time honored ying/yang.

Mike Makatron – In Ten Cities published by Trojan Press. Melbourne, Australia 2015.

Click HERE for more about this book.

“Daze World”, the Artist and Book from City to Canvas and Back

From BSA:

“This is not an autobiography in the practical sense. I didn’t cover the day-to-day minutia of my childhood or formative teenage years all the way to the present. Rather, I have chosen to take the reader on a journey that covers some of the seminal moments in my life. Those moments shaped my art and allowed me to continue to evolve as an artist,” says graffiti/street/studio artist DAZE of the brand new collection of images and essays that make up “Daze World,” the new hardcover from Schiffer.

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis available through Schiffer Publishing.

Click HERE for more about this book.

“The Art Of The Mural: Volume 01″ Captures a Moment

From BSA:

Murals hold their own place onstage in public space today for a variety of reasons that we discuss regularly on BSA. From grassroots and public, to private and corporate, we have watched the genre professionalize as Street Art festivals and other initiatives are often coupling artists with brands and are selling canvasses through the organizers’ galleries. Today we have the first of a promised four-part book series by Art Whino gallerist and organizer of the Richmond Mural Project in Virginia, Shane Pomajambo, that features many artists he has worked with in the brand new “The Art of the Mural”.

The Art of The Mural: Contemporary International Urban Art. Volume 01 by Shaen Pomajambo. Schiffer Publishing

Click HERE for more about this book.

Rubin: “Scandinavia / New York” Studio Works and Murals

From BSA:

An immigrant’s tale, Rubin’s, and a New York story as well. For his first artists monograph the Fin by way of Sweden brazenly tells you his story in a most deliberate and considered way. It’s brazen because it’s a truth that has taken him a long time to be ready to tell, ready to be vulnerable. It’s carefully considered because – that’s his style.

Rubin. Scandinavia / New York. Studio Works and Murals. Published by Dokument Press 2016. Sweden.

Click HERE for more about this book.

“Street Art / Today” features 50 of the Most Influential Street Artists

From BSA:

It’s nearly impossible to arrange the work of Street Artists into lists of “top” or “most popular” or “most influential”, but it happens all the time now particularly as the street art world morphs into a commercial and professional scene for some. But it’s a dodgy business when one tries to rank art and artists – and most people will disagree with your list no matter what.

Street art / today: The 50 most influential street artists today by Bjørn Van Poucke & Elise Luong published by Lannoo. Belgium.

Click HERE for more about this book.

Graffiti Murals: Exploring The Impacts Of Street Art

From BSA:

New Book by Patrick Verel Attempts to Untangle the Graffiti Mural Discussion

In Graffiti Murals: Exploring The Impacts Of Street Art, a methodical study of graffiti and murals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Staten Island, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and Trenton (New Jersey), author Patrick Verel talks to all of the stakeholders he can find, revealing much in the telling of his findings. The author says he created this book from a paper he was researching for while completing his masters degree in urban studies, and you can tell his intention was to turn over as many stones as possible to study the impact this grassroots art movement is having on the communities that murals appear in.

Graffiti Murals: Exploring the Impact of Street Art. Patrick Verel. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Click HERE for more about this book.

Stik : His First Collected Volume of Work

From BSA:

An unusual little tall man, this Stik man.

Deceptively simple, he expresses profound truths that are anything but. Since the turn of this century in his hometown of Hackney, the formerly homeless Stik has been bringing his unassuming line drawn character out to the streets of northeast London, often Shoreditch. With few details and is as uncluttered as a logo, Stik towers above on the side of a housing behemoth, or a water tower, or a doorway.

STIK. Published by Penguin Books – Random House. New York City. 2016

Click HERE for more about this book.

Shepard Fairey: Earth Crisis

From BSA:

Artist and activist Shepard Fairey this week releases a 2 volume “Earth Crisis” set that commemorates a recent public environmental project and doubles as a collection of plates to jumpstart your collection which you could easily frame and hang. With it comes powerful socio-political messages common to his wheelhouse delivered with the artists often iconic sense of design.

Shepard Fairey / OBEY. Earth Crisis. Albin Michel Publishers . Galerie Itenerrance. Paris. July 2016

Click HERE for more about this book.

Icy & Sot “Let Her Be Free”

From BSA:

“We first met Icy and Sot the summer they arrived in New York. Their name was already preceding them on the Internet because even while still in Iran, they had developed a network of friends and collectors who had helped them to show their art in Europe. Images of their work had already caught our eye. We were lucky to be the first to interview them here.” – Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, Co-founders, Brooklyn Street Art

BSA is proud to tell you of this new book, the first monograph of Iranian Street Art brothers ICY & SOT, which we dedicated many hours of design, editing, interviewing, and writing to, in addition to contributing photographs by Jaime Rojo. Along with the brothers and book designer Cassandra Brinen, we spent many hours in New York meetings in each others apartments and Brooklyn cafes sorting through images and stories to find the narrative and the flow of the pages and chapters (even laying all the pages across a living room floor), all the time wondering if we could finish it in time and to the quality level and taste level everyone was looking for.

Icy & Sot “Let Her Be Free” Lebowski Publishers. Amsterdam 2016

Click HERE for more about this book.

Luna Park’s “(Un)Sanctioned” Book

From BSA:

The memory of the joy and the excitement of discovery of graffiti and Street Art is something we never take for granted, and we have always given voice to as many artists and photographers as possible on BSA for that reason. Luna, whose real name is Katherine Lorimer, this month introduces her first book-bound collection of many of her most electrifying moments of capture and documentation.

Heavy on New York artists, particularly her favorites and dear friends, the collection captures a splendid offering of the spine tingling pieces of ephemera one could stumble upon here in the last 11 years – if they did the hard work. Expertly collected and selected, this above all is a reflection of one personal journey.

Katherine ‘Luna Park’ Lorimer’s book (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets from Carpet Bombing Culture

Click HERE for more about this book.

Graffiti Murals: Exploring The Impacts Of Street Art

June 7, 2016 Artists

New Book by Patrick Verel Attempts to Untangle the Graffiti Mural Discussion

Within an academic framework Verel makes sure to interview artists, property owners, local neighbors, law enforcement, and even the occasional Marxist scholar who explains the concept of “creative destruction” in capitalist global cities and the “necessary” cycles of gentrification they go through, often abetted unwittingly by artists.

He carefully studies some causative factors for graffiti writing, metrics for measuring in a sphere of criminality, the difficult distinctions we make between tags and throwies versus pieces, productions, and graffiti murals, and the sneakily deliberate practice of using sanctioned graffiti and Street Art as a deterrent for the unsanctioned stuff.

In the context of urban studies and planning, the creativity here is sort of reduced to pawndom, but as a social factor, he provides examination of the intersections of invested parties. It’s a tricky line to walk with possibilities of triangulation everywhere on this tightrope, but ultimately a wide swath of opinions is sampled by the author and given to you to assess.

Oh, yes, there are also murals – captured in situ, without romance. In this way the images are illustrative and informational amidst fields of text that sometimes gets into the weeds.

Couched in the agendas of city planners, business improvement districts, policy makers, landlords, and straight up economic lever-pullers, the aesthetic and cultural growth of the graffiti scene (and its various tributaries) takes a little bit of a backseat in this version of an enormous half-century long story.

Undoubtedly, every reader will come away knowing something new from “Graffiti Murals” and with a greater appreciation for many of the complexities around them in the US. Congratulations to Verel for trying to make sense of the contradictory laws, opinions, and social strategem that currently guide our path.

Graffiti Murals by Patrick Verel. Schiffer Publishing. 2016 (photos of plates by Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti Murals: Exploring the Impact of Street Art. Patrick Verel. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

“The Art Of The Mural: Volume 01” Captures a Moment

May 10, 2016 Artists

Murals hold their own place onstage in public space today for a variety of reasons that we discuss regularly on BSA. From grassroots and public, to private and corporate, we have watched the genre professionalize as Street Art festivals and other initiatives are often coupling artists with brands and are selling canvasses through the organizers galleries. Today we have the first of a promised four-part book series by Art Whino gallerist and organizer of the Richmond Mural Project in Virginia, Shane Pomajambo, that features many artists he has worked with in the brand new “The Art of the Mural”.

Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Featuring more than fifty current graffiti/Street Artists, the survey pays special attention to the show-stopping eye candy that commands attention for these nomadic painters who are developing their craft before an ever larger and more appreciative international audience.

Culture critic and curator Carlo McCormick, who writes the introduction to the Schiffer published hardcover, notes that this mural renaissance is quite unlike the US government funded New Deal era mural programs that produced “hundreds of thousands of murals for schools, hospitals, post offices, housing projects, and various government facilities”. And he’s right, these are emanating from a different place entirely.

Antony Lister. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

The world-traveling media-soaked artists, of which this collection is subset, have had vastly more exposure to corporations and branding perhaps than, say, arts institutions, and a sophisticated self-handling is often on display with artists ever more savvy in their choices of style and content.

A greater percentage are now entering into private collections, galleries, and museums thanks to unprecedented platforms for huge exposure on the Internet, and their public works are adding rich character and dialogue to our neighborhoods and public spaces.

Curiot. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

With academia, art critics, and auction houses all grappling with the rightful place of these artists in contemporary art and society at large it will be instructive to know the history and their lineage, content, context, and patronage. One has to agree when McCormick says that all of these “are helpful for us to consider in looking at and understanding the artists’ walls of today.”

This collection of talent is strong, with many of the mid-large names that are at play in this generation of painters whom are primarily born in the 1970s and 80s. In their work is a cultural appreciation for modern graffiti history as they now channel it along with formal training, art history, advertising, and a multitude of media. With few exceptions, it’s a tight list of artists, the images are riveting (though uncredited to their photographers), and the brief introductions by Pomajambo contain just enough biographical information and artist’ quotes to ground the story and give it context.

“As with everything I do,” says the Queens, New York native Pomajambo, “I always question and observe, and as we reach critical mass with murals I felt compelled to create this project and capture a moment in time.”

Evoca 1. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Fintan Magee. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Miss Van. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

MOMO. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Onur & Wes 21. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Telmo & Miel. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Tone (Robert Proch). Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

All photos of the spreads by Jaime Rojo

The Art of The Mural: Contemporary International Urban Art. Volume 01 by Shaen Pomajambo. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. USA.

Participating Artists
Amose, Arraiano, Augustine Kofie, Axel Void, Bezt (Etam Crew), Chazme 718, Chor boogie, Clog Two, Curiot, Cyrcle, DALeast, Decertor, Dface, ETNIK, Faith47, Fintan Magee, Hense, INTI, Jade, Jaz, JR, Kenor, Lister, Logan Hicks, Low Bros, Meggs, Miss Van, Momo, Mr Thoms, Muro, Natalia Rak, Nosego, Onur, Pener, Reka, Robert “Tone” Proch,Ron English, Rone, Sainer (Etam Crew), SATONE, SEACREATIVE, Sepe, Smithone, Sten Lex, Stormie Mills, Telmo Miel, Tristan Eaton, TWOONE HIROYASU, Vhils, Wes21 and Zed 1

“Daze World”, the Artist and Book from City to Canvas and Back

May 2, 2016 Artists

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

The trains of the 1970s are formative and foundational to the NYC story and Daze is happy to talk to you about his love affair with the cars, tracks, tunnels, yards. Also important to him is his gradual transition in the early and mid-1980s to canvas and galleries. It is a transition that may be insurmountable, or at least treacherous, for a graffiti writer.

A contributor to the book Jay J. SON Edlin, the noted graffiti historian and author, focuses the reader on this subject of transitions as he lays out the various phases of discovery that the young Chris Ellis went through, including when he left Brooklyn to attend the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan in 1976 with “a who’s who of graffiti’s illuminati.”

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

Here are the photos you love of his trains and early gallery shows, many of which are taken by photographer Martha Cooper, as well those of a wide array of celebrities, night life personalities, and close painting peers over the years – perhaps chief among them his frequent painting partner Crash. There are many collaborative trains and walls that capture the action and interaction as well, such as a 2003 explosion of style and storytelling in Sao Paulo, Brazil with Binho, Ciro, Does, and Fuk – as well as a 1992 wall for the Graffiti Hall of Fame painted with Dez, and Skeme in a photo by Ms. Cooper.

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

The insightful chapter “From City as Canvas to Canvas as City” clearly identifies the transom that Daze has been traveling back and forth on in his 4 decade painting career and writer Claire Schwartz helps us understand the visual vocabulary at work and how Daze developed it over time along with his painting craft. This continuous application of lessons learned on the street and in the studio over the years has landed his work in well regarded private collections and institutions and taken him to cities and opportunities around the world.

As far as Daze’s World is concerned, the artist will tell you “the saga continues…”

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

All photos taken by and © Jaime Rojo

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis available through Schiffer Publishing.

Chris DAZE Ellis: The City Is My Muse currently on view at the Museum Of The City Of New York through May 31st 2016. Click HERE for further information.

BSA HOT LIST : Books For Your Gift List from 2015

December 7, 2015 Artists

This year BSA brought you a number of reviews of Street Art related books to consider. Now that it is Christmas / Hannukah / Kwaanza / Solstice / New Year time we thought you would like a brief review of some of the best books of 2015. Enjoy!

Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art

From BSA:

“Djerbahood” Book About Tunisian Open-Air Museum Of Street Art

“Another top rate production from the Galerie Itinerrance in Paris, the book allows you to see most of the 150 or so artists who painted in this largest island of North Africa in Tunisia. Not surprisingly, most of these artists are represented by the gallery and organizer/author Mehdi Ben Cheikh so it is by default a catalog of talents whose studio work is for sale. But this is no mere sales catalog, Fatimah.”

Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art by Mehdi Ben Cheikh. Published by Editions Albin Michel. Paris, 2015.

For more on this book click HERE

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press.

From BSA:

The Adventures Of Anthony Lister

“Superhero and Street Artist/painter/contemporary artist Anthony Lister still crushes walls thank you very much. He never left the street actually – he just opened the door to the studio as well. And he lit things on fire in both.

Formally trained, he is one of the few of those much maligned art school kids painting on the street whom some graff heads allow themselves to admire, mostly because he doesn’t seem to give a good f**k. Don’t be mislead – he is a superhero as well as a villain, aesthete as much as vandal, respectful of convention even while shredding it. Anyone watching him work over the last decade will tell you that he cares very much and he is willing to do the heavy intellectual/emotional/physical labor to bring it to another level.”

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press.

For more about this book click HERE

Borondo: Memento Mori

From BSA:

Borondo and His Collection of “Memento Mori” (Book)

“By turning the pages you are a part of the research he is undergoing, and you see how he brings to the walls and windows his latest findings. Sometimes the process is additive, other times through subtraction, but Borondo appears to discover along with his audience what lies here.

A Street Artist yes, but one of the many former graffiti writers who are chafing against that term today, perhaps not realizing that their own practice is redefining it. Not only does the work speak to the average passerby in ways we haven’t been thinking of, he is using the context of the decaying wall as further evidence of a life cycle that everyone is a part of.”

Memento Mori is produced and coedited by Chiara Caprasecca and Chiara Pietropaoli and published by Yard Press.

For more on this book click HERE

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor.

From BSA:

Graffiti South Africa, The Book

“Arranged by three main areas of Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, you even get a helpful map to help you appreciate the relative distance between them and the higher concentrations of writers in each – Graffiti South Africa gives a rather thorough overview of the scene, its players, and its history. The first book by the founder of the website by the same name, he has collected many images and interviews with artists from the early days as well as some of the newer ones, striking a balance in a widely varied scene that leans heavily toward graff vernacular while trying to incorporate the burgeoning street art scene as well.”

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor available from Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

For more on this book click HERE

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2

From BSA:

Street Art Santiago : A Captivating Look and Insightful Read

“Using his own sense of discovery and a reporters’ tenacity for uncovering the story, Lord K2 (David Sharabani) scopes the walls for riveting images and first person accounts, digging below the obvious to present economic and social data along with a historical context of murals and their role in political life up to today.

Street Art Santiago adeptly draws connections between the quality of life, a lack of social mobility, and the soulful persistence of artists on the street who interpret the Santiago scene as one with its own distinct voice.

“The graffiti in Chile is mutating. We don’t want to paint graffiti from the Bronx anymore. We want to paint what reflects our Latin roots,” says Wend.”

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015

For more about this book click HERE

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015

From BSA:

The Genius of C215 In One Storied Tome : La monographie

“On the street and in the studio this guy has pretty much mastered the art of stencils over the last decade in a way that makes the medium have a human depth; something that few can do. He manages to give his subjects a character, revealing even the soul of his subjects in the lines on their faces, bringing life in their eyes. A proud and tormented fellow who honors art history as much as the suffering of people today, this is a talent that is fully engaged in the modern world.”

C215 La Monographie / The Monograph. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015

For more on this book click HERE

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015.

From BSA:

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien Issue #3: Erotik Edition

We’re always happy to see hand-made publications, especially when they are made by artists and collectives. For their 3rd edition, Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien have decided their theme is “Erotik”. With multiple contributions from fellow graffitti / Street Artists, you can see a few recurring themes amongst the figurative pieces. Included are some three dimensional pieces and many shots of favorite artworks on the street, which will apparently conjure erotik type feelings for certain folks.

To order a copy of Issue Nr. 3 of Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien: Erotik Edition click HERE

For more about this book click HERE

Søren Solkær: Surface

From BSA:

Søren Solkær: “Surface” Reveals What’s Below

“ ‘At first it seemed like a closed community, but one artist would lead me to the next and before I knew it, I had entered into an amazing new world – a very tight knit community of artists, many of which live like creative nomads.,’ says photographer Soren Solkaer in the foreward to his new collection called Surface. A three year project that has led the Dane to 13 cities capturing 140 artists whose practice lies along the graffiti-Street Art continuum is a revelation on many levels – who knew that you could convince so many of these undomesticated ferocious coyotes to pose? Who would have guessed that they would agree to be in staged photographs as well?”

Søren Solkær: Surface published by Gingko Press.

For more about this book click HERE

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich.

From BSA

Malik and “Note” Bring 17 Street Artists to a Swiss Prison: “4661m2″

“Initiated by Aarau-based graffiti/street/fine artist Malik in May of 2012, the project eventually corralled 17 Street Artists, all but one from Switzerland, to enter the confines of the new high security Lenzburg Prison to paint murals on exterior walls, courtyards, hallways, and common areas.

‘I was looking for a new challenge and a new and exciting project where I could show my art,’ says Malik and while the 18 month project originated with his vision of getting a nice wall for himself, quickly the project grew far beyond his expectations to become an educational, sociological meditation on the penal system, the appropriate role of art within it, and our collective humanity.”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich.

For more about this book click HERE

Shepard Fairey. Cover To Overt. Rizzoli, New York 2015

From BSA:

Shepard Fairey: “Covert To Overt” Book and Show in London

“Chronicling the last 6 years or so of murals, wheatpastes, shows, screen prints, posters, collaborations and art products that Fairey has brought to the fore, “Covert to Overt” is also chock-full of endorsements and analysis of his work’s impact from people who he’s met along the way like Jello Biafra to Neil Young to Pedro Alonzo, Russell Brand and D*Face.

Sean Bonner recounts a night wheatpasting with the Street Artist and the personal ruminations that can surface when sharing such bonding covert behavior, ‘We talked about small actions that can have huge impacts. Writing a song. Telling someone about a band. Creating an image that makes people ask questions. Simple actions that can change the world.’ “

Shepard Fairey. Cover To Overt. Rizzoli, New York 2015

For more on this book click HERE

Ella & Pitr “Baiser d’Encre” (=”Ink kisses”) France 2015.

This one is launching December 12th, and we haven’t had time to pour over it – but you might like to know about it anyway.

From Bizaare Beyond Belief:

“Ella & Pitr is proud to present their new book “Baiser d’Encre” (“Ink kisses”). It is set to be released on the 12th of December 2015 and the book will be available online for international shipping on this site: Superbalais and also in Le Feuvre’s gallery in Paris.

“Baiser d’Encre” is a collection of extracts from Ella & Pitr’s sketchbooks. Exclusive and intimate, this new book is an open window to the artists’ life. Mostly composed of sketches, it is completely understandable for non-french speakers. Tons of preview images after the jump!

Ella & Pitr “Baiser d’Encre” (=”Ink kisses”). France 2015

For more about this book click HERE

Street Art Santiago : A Captivating Look and Insightful Read

August 4, 2015 Artists

Street Art Santiago is an in-depth and attractive look at the current dyanamic graffiti and street art scene in this Chilean city, minus the hype.

Using his own sense of discovery and a reporters’ tenacity for uncovering the story, Lord K2 (David Sharabani) scopes the walls for riveting images and first person accounts, digging below the obvious to present economic and social data along with a historical context of murals and their role in political life up to today.

“The graffiti in Chile is mutating. We don’t want to paint graffiti from the Bronx anymore. We want to paint what reflects our Latin roots,” says Wend.

With many accessible interviews and photographs of the artists you can understand a communal connection despite natural competition; a mutual respect for other artists and of the graffiti tradition that now evolves into what is called Street Art. There also is a belief that this means of expression makes an impact that is potent and meaningful to a city.

“Persevere in you technique and style, apply color, strength, and identity to your work,” says an artist named Vision.” Deliver messages. Put up on a wall the things that you have seen and liked. Make the world vibrate.”

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015

Graffiti South Africa, The Book

February 9, 2015 Artists

A big hardcover from South Africa arrived in the mail recently and we wanted to share it with you because we think you’ll like it.

“I’ve tried to keep my text concise and simple, without burdening readers with copious historical details or ponderous views on artistic expression, sociopolitical issues, or cultural trends,” says author Cale Waddacor of this survey, and you can tell that he intends to keep his word, but he just knows too much valuable stuff to keep hidden.

What he holds back in prose he delivers in a spectrum of representational images that give you an idea of the quality of work going up in this scene with quite a range. From basic outlines and fills to wild style to today’s illustrators, muralists and contemporary artists, South African streets boasts a lot more than you may have imagined.

Arranged by three main areas of Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, you even get a helpful map to help you appreciate the relative distance between them and the higher concentrations of writers in each – Graffiti South Africa gives a rather thorough overview of the scene, its players, and its history. The first book by the founder of the website by the same name, he has collected many images and interviews with artists from the early days as well as some of the newer ones, striking a balance in a widely varied scene that leans heavily toward graff vernacular while trying to incorporate the burgeoning street art scene as well.

The book also features a number of quotes that quickly give you an idea about the environment and the community, ” Writers need to respect each other for being different, and not for being the same. My crew is made up of totally different individuals, with varying views and styles,” says Drone. The artist React observes a scene that continues to grow and improve, “Graffiti is getting more and more polished and impressive. Mural art has always existed but the mediums have changed.”

Overall, you’ll be impressed by the variety and the quality of work, even if it is true that South Africa joined the international graffiti and street art scene a little later than others. Doesn’t matter, they can boast a rich soil now. Take it from the writer named Lazer, ” We may not have the quantity of writers, but the quality of the bombing, panels, and productions being painted here is world class.”

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor available from Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

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Dignity in “Tracing Morrocco” gives pause, requests your consideration.

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015

New Book by Patrick Verel Attempts to Untangle the Graffiti Mural Discussion

STIK. Published by Penguin Books – Random House. New York City. 2016

Shepard Fairey / OBEY. Earth Crisis. Albin Michel Publishers . Galerie Itenerrance. Paris. July 2016

New Book by Patrick Verel Attempts to Untangle the Graffiti Mural Discussion

Graffiti Murals by Patrick Verel. Schiffer Publishing. 2016 (photos of plates by Jaime Rojo)

Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Antony Lister. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Curiot. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Evoca 1. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Fintan Magee. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Miss Van. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

MOMO. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Onur & Wes 21. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Telmo & Miel. Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Tone (Robert Proch). Shane Pomajambo The Art of The Mural Volume 01 Foreword by Carlo McCormick. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press.

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press.

Borondo: Memento Mori

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor.

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015

Ein Wandblatt Aus Wien. Issue Nr. 3: Erotik Edition. Zine. Irga Irga Crew. July 2015.

Søren Solkær: Surface

Søren Solkær: Surface published by Gingko Press.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich.

Shepard Fairey. Cover To Overt. Rizzoli, New York 2015

Shepard Fairey. Cover To Overt. Rizzoli, New York 2015

Ella & Pitr “Baiser d’Encre” (=”Ink kisses”) France 2015.

Ella & Pitr “Baiser d’Encre” (=”Ink kisses”). France 2015

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book cover © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti South Africa by Cale Waddacor. (photo of book spread © Jaime Rojo)

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